Tethers contain radio transmitters that allow the Sheriff's Office to locate the individuals around the clock. / Regina H. Boone/Detroit Free Press

Written by

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon’s staff acknowledged it exceeded a county contract by more than $245,000 this year by steering additional business to a preferred tether vendor, which provides electronic devices to track the whereabouts of convicts and some suspects who aren’t locked up in the county jail.

Suzanne Hall, director of administration for the Sheriff’s Office, told county commissioners today that the spending violates the contract, but said she just learned of it within the past week and has been working to correct it.

Figures provided by the county commission show the Sheriff’s Office already has paid Michigan Tether of Clinton Township more than $744,212 as of May 5, despite a contract limit of $499,000. Under the contract, the Sheriff’s Office is supposed to spend specific amounts with four tether vendors.

“We are over-expending with one vendor, we are substantially under-expending with another,” Hall said. “We have been in the process of trying to modify the contracts.”

Lt. Dennis Ramel, who oversees the tether program for Napoleon, said the product offered by Michigan Tether includes additional features, such as two-way communication, monitoring services and a harder-to-cut metal strap — that are not offered by three other firms.

Ben Aycock, a spokesman for competing firm Actron, said he offered a tether that included the same features for 20 cents less daily per tether, but Ramel rejected his offer.

“He wasn’t interested,” Aycock said.

Hall said she hadn’t heard that other vendors offered to upgrade their products as well.

Some commissioners were skeptical of the explanation from sheriff’s officials.

“Why do we bother to approve contracts if no one is going to follow them?” Commissioner Ilona Varga, D-Lincoln Park, said. “It’s definitely bad management, but there may be more to it.”

Although it varies by day, Wayne County has as many as 500 individuals on tether at any given time. To incarcerate all of them would cost an additional $29 million, Hall said.

Tethers contain radio transmitters that allow the Sheriff’s Office to locate the individuals around the clock for less than $8 per day — far less than the $143 a day needed to incarcerate prisoners.